Precious Metals As A Medium Of Exchange

Gold, Silver, Copper, Palladium, Platinum And Others...

Precious metal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements. They are usually ductile and have a high lustre. Historically, precious metals were important as currency, but are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities. Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium each have an ISO 4217 currency code.

Silver

Silver2

Gold

Gold2

Platinum

The best-known precious metals are the coinage metals, gold and silver. While both have industrial uses, they are better known for their uses in art, jewellery and coinage. Other precious metals include the platinum group metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, of which platinum is the most widely traded.
The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use but also by their role as investments and a store of value. Historically, precious metals have commanded much higher prices than common industrial metals

A metal is deemed to be precious if it is rare. The discovery of new sources of ore or improvements in mining or refining processes may cause the value of a precious metal to diminish. The status of a “precious” metal can also be determined by high demand or market value. Precious metals in bulk form are known as bullion and are traded on commodity markets. Bullion metals may be cast into ingots or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass and purity rather than by a face value as money.

Purity and Mass

The level of purity varies from issue to issue. “Three Nines” (99.9%) purity is common. The purest mass-produced bullion coins are in the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf Series, which go up to 99.999% purity. Note that a 100% pure bullion is impossible, as absolute purity in extracted and refined metals is asymptomatically approached. [Citation needed] Historically, coins had a certain amount of weight of alloy, with the purity a local standard. The Krugerrand is the first modern example of measuring in “pure gold”; it should contain at least 12/11 pure gold. Still more bullion coins (for example: British Sovereign) state neither the purity nor the fine-gold weight on the coin but are recognized and consistent in their composition,[citation needed] and many historically stated a denomination in currency (example: American Double Eagle).

Coinage

Many nations mint bullion coins. Although nominally issued as legal tender, these coins’ face value as currency is far below that of their value as bullion. For instance, Canada mints a gold bullion coin (the gold Maple Leaf) at a face value of $50 containing one troy ounce (31.1035 G) of gold – as of May 2011, this coin is worth about $1,500 CAD as bullion. [3] Bullion coins’ minting by national governments gives then some numismatic value in addition to their bullion value, as well as certifying their purity.

One of the largest bullion coins in the world is the 10,000 Dollar Australian gold nugget coin minted in Australia, which consists of a full kilogram of 99.9% pure gold.

$50 gold coin

Canadian Gold Coin

platinum coin

Silver Euro Coin

Precious metal Coin

Canadian Silver Coin

There have been a small number of larger bullion coins, but they are impractical to handle and not produced in mass quantities. China has produced coins in very limited quantities (less than 20 pieces minted) that exceed 260 troy ounces (8 KG) of gold. [citation needed] Austria ahs minted a coin containing 31 KG of gold (the Vienna Philharmonic coin minted in 2004 with a face value of 100,000 Euro) As a stunt to publicise the 99.999% pure one-ounce Canadian Gold Maple Leaf series, in 2007 the Royal Canadian Mint made a 100 KG 99.999% gold coin, with a face value of $1 million, and now manufactures them to order, but at a substantial premium over the market value of the gold.

Economic Use

Gold and silver, and sometimes other precious metals, are often seen as hedges against both inflation and economic downturn. Silver coins have become popular with collectors due to their relative affordability, and unlike most gold and platinum issues which are valued based upon the markets, silver issues are more often valued as collectables, far higher than their actual bullion value.

Aluminum

An initially precious metal that became common is aluminum. While aluminum is the third most abundant element and most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, it was first found to be exceedingly difficult to extract the metal from its various non-metallic ores. The great expense to refine the metal made the small quantity of pure aluminum more valuable than gold. Bars of aluminum were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1855, and Napoleon 111’s most important guests were given aluminum cutlery, while those less worthy dined with mere silver. In 1884, the pyramidal capstone of the Washington Monument was cast of 100 ounces of pure aluminum. By that time, aluminum was as expensive as silver.

Over time, however, the price of the metal has dropped. The dawn of commercial electric generation in 1882, and the invention of the Hall-Heroult process in 1886 caused the artificially high price of aluminum to drop over a short period of time.

Bismuth and Tellurium,

Bismuth and tellurium are the only two metals which have abundances less than 10-8 by mass par (GIG) in the earth’s crust, but which are currently not of high economic value. [citation needed]

Gold, silver and copper systems in today’s economy:

Here is how gold, silver and copper works as money in the Republic of Texas.
A great documentary on how gold, silver and copper can be the solution to today’s FIAT monetary system.